The North-Atlantic captivity of the church is coming to an end
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
Philip Jenkins should be read by anyone interested in the future of Christianity. In The Next Christendom, Jenkins called attention to the fact that the growth of the Church in the “global South” was a phenomenon that had been largely overlooked but which will have dramatic effects upon the future of our faith. “In our lifetimes,” he observes in the earlier book, “the centuries-long North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end.”
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
Rev. Margaret Mullin, executive director of Anishinabe Fellowship Centre, part of Winnipeg Inner City Missions, was honoured with the 2007 YMCA/YWCA Manitoba Women of Distinction award. Mullin won in the Arts and Culture category, held at a gala dinner in Winnipeg in May.
Chick-lit is paternalistic, simplistic and insulting to thinking women
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
Are there women out there who actually enjoy reading books that target Christian women living cookie-cutter lifestyles where men are hopeless and helpless, and women must tend the family and keep the home fires burning? What about books like Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, where a mind is challenged, lives are deep, dynamic and multi-faceted, and not everything has a happy ending? Even for those who like their fiction “lite,” surely there are plenty of worthy novels out there to entertain.
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
Study tours hosted by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank have been announced for 2008. Tentative destinations include: West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia) or Central America (Nicaragua, El Salvador) in January and February, and a youth tour to Honduras in February. It is not too early to apply for one of these educational trips, where participants get to experience how CFGB is impacting communities. Visit CFGB's website at www.foodgrainsbank.ca for more information.
Lighting small sparks in the dry tinder of congregations
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
Walk Through the Bible founder Bruce Wilkinson may not have been a total unknown when he wrote The Prayer of Jabez, but the little book's nine million sales were certainly helped by marketing creativity. The list of spin-offs include three children's versions, The Prayer of Jabez Journal, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional for Children, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional for Adults, The Prayer of Jabez Bible Study, The Prayer of Jabez for Women, a 90-minute audio version, a video, the musical companion The Prayer of Jabez Music … A Worship Experience, backpacks, jewellery, Christmas ornaments, vanilla-scented candles, mouse pads, and even a framed painting of Jabez. After refusing a proposal for Jabez candy bars, licensing agent Leslie Nunn Reed told the Los Angeles Times, “We want to be careful about not over-commercializing this.”
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
ENI — US church leaders are lauding a wage agreement between the McDonald's fast-food chain and a group representing migrant farm workers in the state of Florida.
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
Rev. Ron Wallace remembers Japan well from the 1970s, when there were 2,000 missionaries working in that country. He calls those the glory days for mission work in Japan. He was a missionary there from 1976-1981 (and was one of nine Canadian Presbyterians there).
Visiting the church's projects is a deeply cultural experience
photographed by Amy Maclachlan
posted on June 1, 2007 in Features
As I begin to discover this country of a billion people, it doesn't take long before my mind is whirling. India is full of complexities and contradictions, of old and new, of beauty and disgust, of excess and absence. I'm travelling with three Presbyterian Church representatives: Wilma Welsh, the moderator, has been here several times before. The warm embraces and knowing smiles she receives make it seem like she is returning home. Ron Wallace, associate secretary of International Ministries, has also visited in the past, often knowing what to expect at each destination and rhyming off historical facts during long and brutally bumpy drives. And Sarah Kim, director of the Women's Missionary Society, is an India first-timer like me, hesitant as we strike out to new places, yet still enjoying what the country offers. In two weeks' time, when Sarah and I get to go home, Ron and Wilma — a moderator's work is never done! — will head to the country's north for a partner's meeting in Kashmir, where border disputes with Pakistan make the area vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
You have to travel through this dark gift
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
There is a proliferation of books on grief and none are written for pleasure, but rather for the encouragement of those recovering from the death of a loved one. Some do this better than others.
posted on June 1, 2007 in Features
Graduates from Knox College, Presbyterian College, Vancouver School of Theology
Friendship is the air we breathe
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
Joan Chittister writes that friendship “colours the very air we breathe. We can see it in the eyes of old women, in the kitchens of the women they love. We can hear it in the voices of one young woman giggling to another over the phone. We can feel it beating in our own hearts on lonely rainy days in faraway places.” It has fascinated philosophers, spiritual teachers and mystics, artists and poets, yet remains “eternal mystery, eternal desire.” Chittister draws in threads from classical scholars such as the author of Ecclesiastes, Cicero, and Ælred of Clairvaux, “who wrote a theology on friendship founded on the belief that 'God is friendship.'” But these views of spiritual life faded. “In a world dominated by war, famine, plague, and oppression, the God of Love lost out to God the Judge and Jesus the Lord.”
Volunteer missionaries show faith through example.
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
“An increased education opens doors and opportunities,” said Debbie Burns, who had no prior experience as a teacher, before going to China last summer to teach English. “It can change lives. It can make a difference. Getting an education is a big benefit in rural areas.”
posted on June 1, 2007 in Poetry
Loving God, ultimate protector,
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
ENI — “The escalation of gun violence compels us to call for an end to the manufacture and easy distribution of instruments of destruction,” said Rev. Robert Edgar, the general secretary of the US National Council of Churches after the killings at Virginia Tech University. “A faith that expresses compassion for all God's children is opposed to violence in all forms.”
A book that provides real nourishment
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
Go ahead! Eat each and every page from Introduction to the last little morsel.
A primer in power-waiting
posted on June 1, 2007 in For the Journey
I could sense his presence long before I could see him. The spring sunshine had a cast to it that seemed to make my binoculars crystal clear. Feeling his presence, I slowly glassed the meadow all around me, then the forested edge and finally the steep hill behind the small marsh to the east. There were birds everywhere, but I sensed something more than birds. Letting the field glasses dangle around my neck, I sat back on my heels in the cover of some willow scrub at the meadow's edge.
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
A gathering of 30 pastors from 16 countries met in Geneva in April to forge connections, reignite relationships and discuss the role of large, influential congregations in today's Reformed churches. Rev. Dr. Richard Topping, minister at St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal, lecturer at The Presbyterian College, and co-author of Together in Ministry: The Theology and Practice of Ministry, attended the meetings on behalf of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
posted on June 1, 2007 in News
Canada's first Fair Trade Town is Wolfville, N.S., as designated by TransFair Canada, an organization that certifies fair trade products. The idea was adapted from an initiative in England started in 1999. It didn't take long for the idea to spread, and the UK now has more than 200 of these towns, with more sprinkled throughout Europe and the United States. Fair trade ensures farmers (often living in developing countries) are paid a fair price for their product.
There is good Christian fiction, you just have to look for it
posted on June 1, 2007 in Books, Features
The Holographic Reading Club meets every Tuesday, and one evening the subject turned to Christian Fiction.
Variety can be a good thing
posted on June 1, 2007 in For the Record
I recently took a personality indicator test widely used to help people understand themselves and others a bit better. It's the fourth time I've taken one of these, of which there are several different types, in the past 20 or so years. The test is a non-judgemental exercise that places each individual on a grid relative to others giving an indication of preferences for things like, say, whether you get energized from being with others or by yourself or whether you prefer a more orderly life to spontaneity.
